2 dead in shooting involving officers; police investigating

ANCHORAGE, Ky. (AP) — Two people killed in an officer-involved shooting in a wealthy Kentucky suburb are suspects in the homicide of an elderly widower in another city 60 miles away, officials said Wednesday.

Investigators from three jurisdictions are still piecing together the series of events Tuesday night that left three dead, including a 74-year-old man fatally stabbed in his home in Hardin County and two people police believe are connected to that homicide — a man and a woman later killed in a confrontation with police.

Hardin County Chief Deputy David Lee said police officers in Anchorage, Kentucky, a suburb of Louisville, called his county's dispatchers about 7 p.m. Tuesday to report a car abandoned near a field.

A deputy was dispatched to check on the registered owner of that car. The deputy peered through the window of the home, where 74-year-old Lewis Hoskinson lives alone since his wife passed away. The deputy saw signs of foul play and called in backup.

"The house was ransacked, everything was in disarray," Lee said.

The deputies entered and discovered Hoskinson dead. He had been stabbed with a very large knife, Lee said.

Meanwhile, officers with the Anchorage Police Department investigated around the stolen car, abandoned near a gravel drive that leads to a field behind the back lawns of stately houses. At some point, they encountered the two suspects.

Both were killed in the confrontation.

The Jefferson County Coroner's Office identified them late Wednesday as 18-year-old Destiny A. Moneyhun and 25-year-old Bradley James Sheets. Chief Deputy Coroner Jo-Ann Farmer said both were white and from Barren County, 50 miles from the stabbing victim and more than 100 miles from where they were shot and killed.

Sheets was arrested earlier this year after police found him passed out behind the wheel of his truck at an intersection, according to local media reports at the time. He was booked with driving under the influence, possession of synthetic drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Both Sheets and Moneyhun were pronounced dead at the scene. Autopsies will be conducted Thursday.

The two Anchorage police officers involved in the shooting were not injured. City attorney John T. McGarvey said one was a uniformed officer who was wearing a body camera. The second was in plain clothes and was not wearing a body camera.

Louisville Metro Police Department spokeswoman Alicia Smiley said the Anchorage Police Department asked Louisville police to investigate the incident. Police have released few details on the shooting. McGarvey said the video and other evidence have been turned over to Louisville investigators.

Lee said it remains unclear whether the suspects knew Hoskinson or if anything other than the car was stolen. He said deputies are working with the man's relatives to piece together what might have happened and what might be missing from his home.

In Anchorage, a half-dozen police cars remained at the shooting scene Wednesday, along with forensic crews who cordoned off the overgrown field behind suburban homes.

The bodies of two people remained uncovered at the scene. A pile of belongings, including a notebook and a teddy bear, lay near the woman's feet.

Anchorage, a bedroom community of 2,300 people, is one of Kentucky's most expensive cities, with a median household income of $160,000, four times higher than the state. Crime is rare. There were no violent crimes reported in 2015, the most recent year of complete statistics published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Anchorage Police Chief H. Dean Hayes referred questions to the Louisville police. He leads a small department that consists of nine other officers.

McGarvey has lived in town for 38 years, and he believes this is the first time any Anchorage officer has fired a weapon in a hostile situation while on duty. Many people heard the shots, he said, and saw dozens of police cars from the surrounding county come barreling into the sleepy town.

"It traumatized folks a little bit," he said.

The same day as the shooting, a Louisville police officer was fatally injured in a car crash while chasing a man suspected of domestic violence. He died Wednesday at the hospital.

McGarvey said his Anchorage neighbors have tied blue ribbons on their mailboxes and lowered their flags, both in honor of the slain Louisville officer and in support of their small-town department.

"The lesson is that we all live in a larger world; we're all connected by roads," he said. "Even in Anchorage, when a police officer comes up on a car, they don't know what they're going to confront."